Stay safe - Here comes the rain again

My unofficial rain gauge (actually a straight sided ice bucket placed on the balcony), recorded 40cm (16 inches) of rain in forty-eight hours here in central Tokyo. Actually it could have been more as I found it full twice and have no idea how much may have over run the brim. When it rains it pours, as it were. Thankfully the second typhoon heading our way looks to have veered to the north and the archipelago may only receive a glancing blow later today.

Typhoons are a fact of life in Japan. Death, taxes, typhoons and earthquakes as the saying goes. The country is well prepared, the classical ceramic tile roofs being designed to hold on in the high winds. But this typhoon was different, it was slow, meaning the intense rains lasted for longer as the storm slowly edged by. Strangely, it really wasn't that windy by the time it arrived here, though the 120,000 people of Hamamatsu, a coastal city some 250km to the southwest of Tokyo, who had to evacuate in advance of the deluge, probably had it worse.

Japan is a largely mountainous country and, as a result, prone to flash flooding. When the rains come, the run-off can be quick and violent and this time took out an entire district of the city of Joso, near the ancient city of Nikko, and more than twenty five people are currently missing though one lucky man was winched, carrying a dog, from his roof to the safety of a rescue helicopter less than five minutes before the waters took the entire building. For now though the rains are gone and the skies blue; but enjoy it while you can, tomorrow we'll be wet again. Stay safe where ever you may be.

  

The trees to the end of the world

Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa was born in 1543 within the walls of Okazaki Castle, to the southwest of the present day metropolis of Nagoya, Japan's third city. He would probably have been surprised to find that 400 years later the site was also home to the sole importer of the famous British sports cars, TVR. But that's a little off topic for today. The castle became the ancestral home of the Honda Clan and Ieyasu spent his early days caught in the political turbulence of vassal-hood as the family split along lines of diverging loyalties.

On reaching majority, fourteen in those days, he spent his life slowly climbing the military ladder. In 1567, after multiple name changes he finally settled on Tokugawa Ieyasu. Now aligned with the powerful Oda Clan he set about successfully clearing out the remaining opposition in the region, seizing the lands to reward his own growing coterie of vassals. And then he bet the farm and accepted a proposal to exchange his own lands in return for what is today the Kanto Plain, including a small castle in the town of Edo, eventually to become his capital, better known today as Tokyo.

Famously Ieyasu "won the war by retreating" as the phrase goes. And then in 1600 he solidified absolute power at the Battle of Sekigahara, on the shores of Lake Biwa near Kyoto, unceremoniously disposing of the massed forces of western Japan. After this and a few minor distractions he ruled in effective peace until passing away in 1616 at the ripe old age of seventy three. And then they buried him. And then dug him up and reburied him finally at Nikko, 130km north of Tokyo. And then they planted a 35km avenue of Sugi (cedar) trees totalling 200,000 in all. Today 13,000 still stand, though the avenue loses some one hundred each year to age and weather. But if you want to see a piece of history, why not walk the trees to the end of the world? The first Shogun of all Japan did.